There are two we have and you could consider parts of the ARG as a third. Freedom Four Annual 1 is here https://sentinelsofthemultiverse.com/comic and if you buy the OblivAeon expansion there is a one-Shot Comic in they.

Failing that, creating an RPG in the Sentinel Comics universe is, in part, our attempt to make continued creation of codified Sentinel Comics storylines commercially viable. We'll see next week how well that works out for us!

“Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” ~Obi-Wan Kenobi

Failing that, creating an RPG in the Sentinel Comics universe is, in part, our attempt to make continued creation of codified Sentinel Comics storylines commercially viable. We'll see next week how well that works out for us!

Well, since we’re talking about Powerball etc: what sort of money would it take to make this? If we wanted to have a floppy-style comic, purchasable on the GtG store for a regular comic price, what would it take to make that happen? How about a graphic novel volume? I’m assuming we’d want to pay an artist and writer (C&A or otherwise), and the costs of an initial print run...I don’t know what else, there’s probably a lot of costs go into making a comic.

I’m not asking because I have the money (if I did, I’d be buying a house, renting sucks) but just because I’m interested in what the ballpark amount would be.

Surveys show that renters are happier than homeowners, on average. Relying on someone else to do your maintenance is a pain, but arranging your own maintenance can be a nightmare. You have no idea all the things that can go wrong with a house until you own one.

I suspect it depends on location - in Australia the rules vary by state, so in Victoria for example it’s harder for landlords to stop you from having pets than it is elsewhere. But it’s pretty notoriously rough across the country. On the other hand, I hear that in Germany it’s quite nice, you can redecorate, all sorts of good stuff (I don’t know why Germany is the example that springs to mind, but it is).

So comics! I did a little rough googling, and found some general estimates: for a 22-page floppy it would be about $1/copy for printing assuming about 3000 copies, $220-$4400 for art ($10-$200/page, which seems like a pretty wide range!), with writing going for $220-$1100 ($10-$50 per page). So that comes to anything up to $8500 for 3000 copies, or almost $3 a copy before distribution costs and profit, and anything else that google and I have forgotten between us.

So on balance I’m not sure how realistic it would actually be, given those extra costs (and I don’t know if it would sell 3000 copies) and I’m seeing why C&A have said making a real comic wouldn’t make economic sense for them.

There is not at this point. By way of explanation, consider this: Marvel Comics went bankrupt on a business model of trying to sell comics.

Aren't Image and Dark Horse doing OK for themselves? It's a bit too simplistic to say that it's impossible to sell comics as a product when there are multiple companies doing it (see also IDW, Valiant...). I think it'd be a hard market to enter doing superhero comics though, especially since a good few Sentinels characters would be accused of being copies. It also seems like the big two are unable to create new characters which is why they do endless retreads and reboots, so there is probably a nuanced argument about why it'd be a struggle, but the bankruptcy owed a lot more to mismanagement than it did to the product

So comics! I did a little rough googling, and found some general estimates: for a 22-page floppy it would be about $1/copy for printing assuming about 3000 copies, $220-$4400 for art ($10-$200/page, which seems like a pretty wide range!), with writing going for $220-$1100 ($10-$50 per page). So that comes to anything up to $8500 for 3000 copies, or almost $3 a copy before distribution costs and profit, and anything else that google and I have forgotten between us.

So on balance I’m not sure how realistic it would actually be, given those extra costs (and I don’t know if it would sell 3000 copies) and I’m seeing why C&A have said making a real comic wouldn’t make economic sense for them.

I agree though that it'd be a hard sell, especially outside of the game market where the creative names would not have much commercial appeal. The better bet would be to see if a smaller publisher like Boom would want to take on the title, but even then you get a question of where is the interest for them? It seems like the superhero market has become incredibly insular, mostly relying on nostalgia products. Would the Sentinel Comics do enough to distinguish themselves from the titles from the big two?

Realisically, I think if they wanted to produce actual comics of Sentinels, it would pretty much have to be digital-only and self-published to try to cut out as many cost factors as possible. They could still put it on places like Comixology to catch in general comic readers but for the most part it would be aimed more at people who like Sentinels.

Whether or not this is worth Christopher and Adam's time (since I think with the above restrictions you could probably reduce the costs to pretty close to that) versus other mediums for telling Sentinels story and other products is another question entirely.

I mean for all that they and we love comics, it's hard not to consider that the Letters Page is a more cost-effective way to tell their story and even there they had to cut back on time spent on it because it wasn't cost-effective enough.

Though I find a certain irony in that this is all because they have a very successful board game-creating company that this changes the time-money equations in this manner. I find myself wonder if, had digital self-publishing and crowdfunding been as available back then as it is now, maybe they would have tried putting out their own comics after all.

Since it is possible: I have a friend who is a comics artist and writer and she's successfully been a part of a few Kickstarted indie comics, including one indie superhero title. None of the projects were the kind of thing you could make a living from alone, but they were cost-effective enough to get them out there to people.

"If life gives you lemons, make a lemon cannon."

Not always the best at social skills; I apologize in advance. I don't apologize for any corny and morbid jokes, though.

Failing that, creating an RPG in the Sentinel Comics universe is, in part, our attempt to make continued creation of codified Sentinel Comics storylines commercially viable. We'll see next week how well that works out for us!

Do you think it would be possible to try to start a digital comic using a kickstarter campaign. You could have the backers all recieve a special tag in the comment section of each comic or just give them a shoutout werever it ends up posted, and the big backers could recieve a physical copy of the first issue of their chosen hero.

If they ever did wish to release actual comics, I think the best way would be to release it in a web-comic format. Printing costs for things like comics and such really can run up a pretty penny, so I think it would be best just do distribute them digitally.

But, like with the podcast, they have to see what's financially viable. Time writing/arting a comic, even if just a page every week or two, takes time away from GTG developing new games, which I think most of us will agree should be their bread and butter.

I follow two webcomics that update daily(ish*) in Empowered and Stand Still Stay Silent. Producing a page a day as a writer and artist is pretty much a full time job, so I'd guess the only realistic way to make it would be to hand over the writing and art to a different team. Otherwise it would completely overtake the game production. Even then, I still think the bigger problem is that there is more than enough superhero content in comics so I doubt if Sentinels would have much reacj outside of the game fans

*-Empowered is published as a printed edition and the webcomic is releasing a page a day. Following the writer/artist on twitter he rarely completes a page per day. SSSSComic updates 4 times a week, but the creator takes periodic breaks to get some content built up as a buffer